PMA

Tonight at the Sony Open House, they announced their brand new flagship Cyber Shot camera, and it didn’t disappoint. While they continued to woo us at the press conference with fancy videos and a guy who juggles glass bottles (he might have done something else, but the guy in front of me blocked my view most of the time), they had me at “Sweep Panorama mode”. Read all about the HX1 after the jump…

To kick off PMA, I headed to the “Sneak Peek” press event to get a look ahead at what we’ll be seeing all week at the show. We’ll check in later with most of the big camera manufacturers, so I was gladly able to take the time to talk to some of the smaller companies who are making innovative photography accessories. Shamelessly, I’ll report that I was most excited to get my hands on the Liquid Image lineup of underwater digital camera masks, as seen above. They now have four masks in their lineup, two of which shoot HD video. And here I thought I was just checking out a novelty item that shoots a few megapixel still images and smooshes your face while you skim the surface as a hobby snorkeler. I was clearly misinformed because these masks are prime for some serious scuba diving and photography action. The entry-level mask, the Explorer Series 302, plunges to a depth of 15 feet and shoots 5MP still photos, while shooting video (VGA, 20fps) and has 16MB of internal memory with the capacity for a 2GB Micro SD card. While those video specs probably won’t impress many, it would be the perfect entry-level mask for someone to have fun with. The Pro HD350 is at the top of the lineup, and can go down as far as 330 feet. Its video shooting capabilities are surprisingly impressive, shooting HD 720P at 30fps. It also shoots 5MP still images, but has internal memory of 64MB and the capacity for a 32GB Micro SD. All four masks have mounts for optional side or head lights.

Join me next week (March 2-5) as I live blog from PMA (the Photo Marketing Association Convention) in Las Vegas. I will be catching up with all of the top camera, gear, and software manufacturers to bring you the lastest on new product releases and news from the photo world at large!